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Wednesday, November 30, 2016

If you need cards in a hurry one of the best ways to whip out a batch of them is to follow at One Sheet Wonder guide. The OSW guide will tell you how to chop up a piece of designer patterned cardstock to get multiple cards out of it.

Once you know what designer paper you are using you can pick out some colored scraps of cardstock to layer on your cards. It's best to stick to just one or two accent colors or else you'll slow yourself down.It is also good to limit the stamps you are going to use on your card. Again, stick to one or two that will be versatile enough to get you through your stack of cards.

The other secret to making a quick bunch of cards is stick with what you know. This is not time to try out a new technique, a new color combo, a new coloring medium or even a new stamp.

I picked out my favorite 8.5" x 11" template which I had to modify because my piece of designer paper was 8" x 12" but it worked out fine since I had that extra inch. Since I was aiming for holiday stamps I picked out one that was easy to color and since I was making these for someone else I kept to flat embellishments. I didn't use brads, ribbon, buttons or anything else with bulk.

Then I sat down and had at it:

Since all the layers I stamped on and the blue pieces were scraps I am taking my overly ambitious stash of cards to Pixie's Snippet Playground Week 257. And while this is a great way to use up snippets, it doesn't help use up the patterned paper stash at all.

The Fine Print: Stamp by Stampin' Up "Christmas Magic," die cut layered pieces by Spellbinders except for Stitched Circles and scalloped border by A Muse Studio, snowflake dies by Impression Obsession and A Muse Studio.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

You know what pocket letters are, right? In case not, they are trading card sleeves filled with homemade ATC-sized art and little bits of crafting goodies that you send to your friends. The theory is that you received on in the mail and then promptly send one of your own to that person.

And by promptly, I mean within the next 3 years. Or at least those are the guidelines I'm going by.

I've received three of them myself and in return I started with the one the that had the furthest to travel (some 6000 miles and change). I sent it to this girl who kind of sort of like cats, so that made the subject matter easy to identify.

These ATCs made up the first row. I have whole selection of pre-printed cards from some Project Life Clone and since they were cat themed, this was the purrfect opportunity to use them. Of course, if you like cats, you know all about the Cat Butt and how it plays a prominent feature in cat ownership.

You also understand the whole cats in boxes thing that shows up in the second row. And of course, we can't have dogs in our cat themed project, now can we?! Do you like my attempt at coloring a Siamese cat in the last ATC?

Monday, November 28, 2016

So one summer my boss posted a sign on our office door. It read: Losers and Sad Sacks Welcome! Okay, not really but it sure felt that way. All summer long I'd get losers and sad sacks wandering in for no reason except to tell me their stories.

I met the guy whose life was over because his girlfriend broke up with him because he was too close-minded and always had to be right. Nope, it wasn't him; it was her. And it was her the time before and the time before that and even the two times before that. He told me all about the last 6 girlfriends and how they all dumped him for the same thing, but it wasn't his fault.

I spoke with the chick whose life was ruined because of a check that was lost in the mail. No, it wasn't just this check that got lost and caused strife. It was pretty much every payment she'd ever written in the last 3 years. But it wasn't her fault that her credit rating was so trashed.

Over several days I got the story of poor Joe Schmoe who just got fired from his job because his boss had unreasonable demands. By fired from his job I mean the last 4 employers he was affiliated with were all the same way. They were so unreasonable that of course none of those were his fault.

There was dude who told me his tale between gulps of milkshake. It turns out he was lactose intolerant but couldn't figure out why he was so sick all the time. Certainly he couldn't do anything about that.

There was the girl who told lies to everyone she knew because "they don't have to know where I am or what I'm doing all the time" and suddenly had no friends through no fault of her own.

And I can't forget the guy whose teachers kept failing him in his classes because they didn't like him. You sure can't do anything about that.

Basically these people did the same thing over and over and over and were confused about how things weren't working out for them. Not one of them saw that the common denominator was them. It was always people with attitudes, unreasonable bosses, uncontrollable illness, and incompetence on the part of others. When I tried to gently point out that maybe the problem was with them, I was scoffed at.

So here is my free advice of the day, worth every penny you paid for it: If it seems like life takes a dump in your breakfast cereal at every turn, maybe you should look in a mirror and re-think things a little.

The Fine Print: So how's that for saying I got basically nothing for you today but some old cards? I think I attract these kinds of people. Among my friends I have her of the 7-year divorce, she of 9 or 11 husbands (lost count), and him of the great deal gone bad for the 45th time. And no, I don't live in a glass house. I'm predictably screwed up too,, feel free to write a blog post about me. Cards 'n stuff by Club Scrap.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

I stamped up this panel several years ago and then it languished in my drawer of fall goodies. I bought the fern green gingham ribbon a couple years ago and never broke the seal for it. I stamped the leaf last year and didn't use it.

Finally this year I put all those old pars together and said, "Oh look, it's a card!" and it was. I added some dabs of glitter glue for a current touch.

Friday, November 25, 2016

I made this card for my last ever A Muse Studio workshop. It probably won't be my last workshop ever but it will be the last one for A Muse since they are closing their doors in a couple of days. I find this skating snowman to be rather appealing in a vintage way. He was quite popular at the workshop and several of his brothers found new homes.

I originally was going to share this card with the Merry Monday folks for their Outdoor Activities challenge but somehow I just didn't get it together for that. So instead, I'll be-bob over to Scrappy Mo's Rudolph Challenge. I might actually have enough Christmas cards made for this year now, but it's good to keep on trucking with it because there's always next year. The Fine Print: All products by A Muse Studio except that ancient silver ink by Brilliance.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

It's Thanksgiving today! You know what that means I'll be doing, right?

That means I'll be watching a ridiculous movie and eating movie theater food! How exciting is that. It beats cooking and putting up with family. You are officially allowed to be jealous.

The Fine Print: All stamps and dies by A Muse Studio (3 more days before they close). The movie we're seeing is Badder Santa and we're going to the movie theater that lets you sit in recliners and feeds you real food along with popcorn and milk duds if you are so inclined. Inclined, get it?!

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Okay, so it is just more pilgrim owl stickers, but weren't you surprised after reading yesterday's post? Didn't I kind of lead you to believe that something different would be here today? No? Well, you're no fun.

I used all sorts of leftover bits and snippets to make these cards so I'll mosey on over the to Snippets Playground. Now those guys are fun.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

When I make a batch of cards I always hem and haw afterward about how to show them on my blog. All at once? Several at once? Piecemeal them out one at a time? There are merits and downsides to doing it either way.

I made these guys with some dimensional felt stickers that I bought a Joann's a coon's age ago. I decided that this was the year to finally use them. I've been trying to decide if pilgrims are politically incorrect or not? Mostly I wonder if cannibalistic owl pilgrims are politically incorrect or possibly morally wrong? You know, whatever, roll with it.

As you can see, I opted for sharing similar cards at once since they are alike and you know what is coming. Just you wait until tomorrow!

The Fine Print: Felt stickers from Joann's,designer paper by Basic Gray (top) and DCWV (bottom), oval die by Stampin' Up, circle die and orange ribbon by A Muse Studio, brown ribbon by Hero Arts, and leaf decorations from Michaels. The coon in question was really old.

Sunday, November 20, 2016

During the Cat Lovers Hop, I posted a cat image I stamped with my friend's stamps and commented that I wondered who made them. Well, truthfully I kind of had an inkling because I knew somewhere in my stash I had these cat stickers that looked suspiciously like the stamps.

See! That's them. So to find the stamps all I had to do was see who made the stickers. Okay, it wasn't quite that simple as the company, Movable Parts does not have a web presence. However, they advertise in RubberStampMadness all the time so I was able to get an email for them and they sent me an order form.

Soon those cat part stamps will be mine! They come in fluffy or regular, so hard to decide.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Here's a long birthday card I made a bit ago. I was trying to come up with some masculine designs for a friend to use. She rejected this one on the grounds that she prefers A2 sized cards. I think it could work for either a guy or a gal. That makes it transgendered? gender neutral? omni gendered? The Fine Print: Yea, I'm going to Hell for that, aren't I? I'll save you a seat. Card and parts by Club Scrap.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

So once upon a time I was poking around the Internet and found a pattern for a 6x6 One Sheet Wonder set of cards. One sheet wonders are when you take one sheet of designer patterned paper and cut it up in such a fashion that you get a whole bunch of cool cards out of it.

I'm more familiar with the ones made from 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper but I could see a 6" x 6" pattern being useful as well so I printed it out. The other day I finally decided to try it out, so I chopped up my patterned paper and then...

Well then... I wondered what the heck I was doing. The template calls for chopping your 6x6 paper into little bits that you layer and then put a focal point on top. I had to sponge each little piece otherwise they got lost once I layered them up over each other. Plus the pieces were so small they didn't really do much for the card. I added another larger layer of DP into the mix as a background and changed out some of my small bits of designer paper into solid paper.

The cards came out fine once I made my substitutions and added in a greeting. However, I was pretty much not impressed with this one sheet wonder pattern. If it has any merit at all it shows a good way to use up little tiny scraps of DP, which doesn't interest me much (I know what a trash can is and how to use it). So there you have it. Feel free to share your favorite OSW pattern or website with me.

Monday, November 14, 2016

I like this llama set that Stampin' Up put out so I had to use it to make a card with bright colors and peppy designs. Then I got extra wild and crazy and did up the inside as well.

Of course I took the lazy way out and just used dies, but hey! It works.The Fine Print: Probably most everything by Stampin' Up, no srly, the cardstock, the dp, and the dies. I mean they make it to go together you might as well use it together.

Saturday, November 12, 2016

So once upon a time I stumbled across this blog that showed how to color this peacock stamp that I have so of course I had to try it out. After I followed along as best I could (not having all the Copic colors used in the sample) I felt that I wanted more purple in peacock so added some in.

Then I liked that so much that I made a second one and I added glitter glue too.

I also fancied up an envelope to go along with it (that's glitter tape in case you can't tell by the photo).

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

The Fine Print: Percy the Proud Pippy Peacock by Stampin' Up, other stuffs from my stash.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

I have a friend who makes fabulous cards using dies. She prefers a neutral palette most often using cream and tan. Her cards tend to be fairly simple but there is something about them that is always just so striking. She keeps them simple because of the amount of cards she sends each month.

She was bemoaning the other day that no one ever sends her birthday cards, which given the amount of mail she sends, I found to be rather shocking.

It turns out that her card making friends are all intimidated by her cards and feel anything they sent in return could not match up. I, of course, though that sounded totally ridiculous. I figure it is easy enough to make and send her a card that stands on its own. Just don't use cream, black, tan, or brown and dies and your card will be so different there will be no comparison.

Above is my non-cream, black, tan, or brown die-less card that I sent her for her birthday. I confess that it isn't an original design but as soon as I ran across it I know it was worthy of my friend.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

I don't understand why I wasn't elected for president. I thought I had a good platform with tax deductions for pets, a paid holiday for the guy who invented sliced bread, and no Christmas carols before Thanksgiving.

I'll bet I know what my downfall was. It was my mandate that all driver's license road test will include 12 different 4-way stops, wasn't it? Seriously, as someone who has lived on the far side of a 4-way stop for over a decade, y'all need to get that shit figured out.The Fine Print: All stuff by Stampin' Up.

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

The inside of the card reads "told me..." and then... NOTHING! We have no idea what it was that the little bird said. He might have been repeating a good piece of gossip, or giving us the launch code to some nuclear weapons, or maybe passing on the winning lottery numbers. But no! We'll never know!

The Fine Print: Unless you are in a Disney film you should probably be leery of talking birds anyway. Card parts by Basic Grey except for the wee button acting as a dot on the I to replace the dot that Charles stuck to the pad of his foot and then took on an extended run throughout the house.

Cat Lovers Blog Hop

TTT Designer Choice 06/22/2017

A Major Award! 12/21/2016

Merry Monday

Shopping Our Stash

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

About Me

Remember kindergarten where you got to color all day, eat snacks and then nap? Weren't those the days?! Anyway, I'm just a gal who still love to play but I can color inside the lines now. My favorite toys involve paper crafting and rubber stamping. I am the co-president of a large local stamp club and I work full-time and sometimes I sleep. I am proudly owned by a pride of cats.